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REPLY TO WEBSTER, 



LETTER FEOM HON. WILLIAM JAY 



HON. WM. NELSON, ^^LC. 



BOSTON : 
WM. Clio SB Y AND 11. P. NICIIOI.S, 

IIJ, WAfm.xGTorf Strklt. 

1850. 

Price, 2 cts. single; '20 cts. a dozen ; $] a hundred. 



BOSTON: 






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PRINTED HY JOHN WILSON, 
No. 21, School-Street. 



X 



LETTER 



New York, IGth March, 1850. 
My DexVr Sir, 

Availing myself of your kind invitation to give 
you my sentiments at any time, on topics occupying the 
attention of Congress, I wrote to you a few weeks ago, 
in relation to the compromise proposed by Mr. Clay. 
Since the date of that letter, you and I, and indeed the 
whole nation, have been astounded by the strange course 
pursued in the Senate by Mr. Webster. I inquire not 
into his motives. To his own master he standeth or 
falleth ; but certainly it must be admitted by friends and 
foes, that his recent somerset is one of the boldest and 
most extraordinary ever thrown by a political tumbler. 
I will not inflict upon you a minute examination of his 
lamentable speech ; but I will take the liberty to call your 
attention to a few of its prominent points. 

Gen. Cass frankly confessed, that, with regard to the 
Wilmot proviso, "a cliange had come over him ; "' but 
Mr. Webster, while his personal identity is almost wholly 
destroyed, while scarcely a fragment of the former man 
remains, is under the hallucination, that he is the same 
Daniel Webster as before ; and, while denouncing and 
ridiculing the proviso, professes to be as much devoted to 
its principle as ever ! 

He noto pours contempt, not only upon legislative in- 
structions, but also upon legislative expressions of hostility 



to the extension of slavery. " I should be unwilling to 
receive from the Legislature of Massachusetts any instruc- 
tions to present resolutions expressive of any opinions 
whatever, on the suhjcct of slavery, for two reasons : first, 
I do not consider that the Legislature of Massachusetts has. 
any thing to do with it ; and next, I do not consider that 
I, as her representative, have any thing to do with it." 

On the 1st of March, 1847, he reacl in the Senate cer-^ 
tain strong anti-slavery resolutions of the Massachusetts 
Legislature, and announced that they had been passed 
unanimously. Did he then rebuke the Legislature of his 
State, for meddling with what was none of their business ? 
Hear him : " I thank her (Massachusetts) for it, and am 
TROUD of her ; for she has denounced the whole object 
for which our armies are now traversing the mountains of 
Mexico. If any thing is certain, it is that the sentiment 
of the whole North is utterly opposed to the acquisition of 
territory to be formed into new slave-holding States.'" — 
Cong. Globe, p. 555. 

In 1819, Mr. Webster, as one of the committee, sub-' 
mitted to a Boston meeting two resolutions, viz. : " That 
the Congress of the United States possess the constitu- 
tional power, upon the admission of any new State created 
beyond the limits of the original territory of the United 
States, to make the prohibition of the further extension 
of slavery or involuntary servitude in such new State a 
condition of its admission ;" and that " it is just and ex- 
pedient that this power should he exercised by Congress 
upon the admission of all new States erected beyond the 
original limits of the United States." Now Mr. Webster, 
as the representative of Massachusetts in Congress, does 
not consider that he has any thing to do with the subject 
of slavery ! 

When it was ascertained, during the war, that new ter- 
ritory would be acquired, and when it was openly avowed 
that it was to become slave territory, the House of Repre- 
sentatives passed Mr. Wilmot's proviso, expressly exclud- 
ing slavery from the territory to be thus acquired. This, 
as we all know, led to a violent political agitation. What 
part did Mr. Webster take in this agitation ? In 1847, 



he addressed a meeting of his own party, and declared, 
" There is not a man in this hall who holds to the 

PRINCIPLE of the WiL>IOT PROVISO MORE FIRMLY 

THAN I DO." The principle of the proviso was the ex- 
clusion of slavery, by act of Congress, from the territory 
to he acquired from Mexico ; and that territory, we all 
know, was none other than New Mexico and California.^ 

The agitation waxed fiercer and fiercer. The Whig 
party at the North pledged themselves to the proviso ; the 
Legislature of Massachusetts, as we have seen, unani- 
moushj declared for the exclusion of slavery from New 
Mexico and California, and Mr. Webster publicly thanked 
his State, and was proud of her for so doing. The Whig 
party in Massachusetts nominated Mr. Webster for the 
Presidency, and he stood before the country as the Wil- 
mot proviso candidate. General Taylor was ultimntely 
selected as the Whig candidate, and was supported by the 
Northern Whigs, on the pledges made by his friends, that 
he would not veto the proviso. Gen. Cass, on the other 
hand, was the avowed anti-proviso candidate, and, as such, 
was opposed by the whole Whig party at the North. The 
great issue on which the election turned in the Free 
States was the prohibition or permission, by Congress, 
of slavery in New Mexico and California. After the can- 
didates were nominated, and while the whole country v.r.s 
convulsed with this issue, what was the course of Mr. 
W^ebster ? Did he dissent from his Northern friends r 
Did he tell them the issue they had made was a nonsensi- 
cal one ? Hear him once more. On the 10th August, 
1848, after New Mexico and California were acquired, he 
rose in the Senate, and thus delivered himself: " My op- 
position to the increase of slavery in this country, or to 
the increase of slave representation, is general and uni- 
versal. It has no reference to the lines of latitude, or 
points of the compass. I shall oppose all such ex- 
tension AT ALL times AND UNDER ALL CIRCUM- 
STANCES, EVEN AGAINST ALL INDUCEMENTS, AGAINST 
ALL SUPPOSED LIMITATION OF GREAT INTERESTS. 
AGAINST ALL COMBINATIONS, AGAINST ALL COMPRO- 
MISES." 

1*- 



6 

To what, let me ask, did this solemn, emphatic, un- 
qualified asseveration refer ? Did he then know, that there 
>vas not a foot of terntory in the United States, over 
exflnVl'"'"' ""^^^"'•fy ^nd physically impossible to 
tir, /^''''^- W«\^« promising, in these impressive 
te^ms, to oppose what he was conscious would never be 
.attempted ? Did he make this pledge before his country, 
with a mental reservation to unite hereafter with Gen. 
Cass and the slaveholders, in denouncing and scorning 
the proviso ? Did he mean to deceive his own party ? 
Did he desire to keep up an angry agitation throughout 
the nation, for electioneering purposes ? and did he thus 
intimate his belief in the danger of the extension of sla- 
very and slave representation, when he well knew that 
the fiat of the Almighty had rendered such extension im- 
possible ? Was he then acquainted with the -law of 
physical geography," which would render the proviso " -i 
re-enactment of the will of God " ? and did he purposely 
conceal the secret of this law in his own breast, when by 
revealing it, he might have stilled the raging billows of 
popular passion which threatened to engulf the Union > 
lo suppose all this, would be to impute to Mr. AVebster 
a degree of trickery and turpitude rarely paralleled, even 
among politicians. Hence we are bound to assume, that 
the law of nature, on which he ?iow relies, is a recent dis^ 
covery, subsequent at least to the 10th August 1848 

It is, however, extraordinary that a gentleman of his 
acquirements did not sooner become acquainted with this 

LAW OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, — THE EAW OF THK 
FORMATION OF THE EAllTH, THAT SETTLES FOR EVEK 
BEYOND ALL TERMS OF HUMAN ENACTMENT, THAT 
SLAVERY CANNOT EXIST IN CALIFORNIA OR NeW 

MEXICO It IS to be regretted that Mr. Webster did 
not condescend to demonstrate the existence of this law 
and to explain the mode of its operation. He indeed tells 
us that our new territories are "Asiatic in their formation 
and scenery ; ' but this fact does not prove his law, since 
slavery has existed for ages amid the scenery of Asia • it 
exists in the deserts of Africa, has existed in every coun- 
try of Europe, and now exists in the frozen regions of 



Russia. This law, moreover, must have been enacted by 
the Creator since 1824, or its operation must have been 
previously suspended in deference to the Spanish govern- 
ment ; for, under that government, negro slavery did 
exist in New Mexico and California; and it ceased in 
1824, not by the law of "physical geography," but by 
a Mexican edict. Thousands of slaves are employed in 
the mines of Brazil, and Mr. AVebster does not explain 
how his law forbids their employment in the mines of 
California. Mr. Webster ridicules the application of the 
proviso to Canada, in case of annexation. I neither see 
nor feel the point of his wit : slavery is already prohibi- 
ted by the local law of Canada ; but, were it not, most 
certainly it ought to be prohibited as a condition of an- 
nexation. New York adjoins Canada, and Mr. Webster 
probably regards the prohibition of slavery in our recent 
Constitution as the height of absurdity. In 1 790 there 
were 21,000 slaves in New York ; and on the 4th of July, 
1827, about 10,000 slaves were emancipated, not by Mr. 
Webster's law, but by act of the Legislature ; and the 
number would have been much greater, had not laws for 
their gradual emancipation been in operation since 1796. 
For a long period, slavery flourished in New York undis- 
turbed by abolitionists. The absence of all anti-slavery 
agitation was as perfect as Mr. Webster's heart could 
desire. Stray negroes were caught with almost as much 
ease as stray pigs. Neither pulpit nor press ruffled the 
happy serenity of the slaveholders. But this blissful 
repose was suddenly broken in 1741, by rumors of an in- 
tended insurrection. Courts and executioners were imme- 
diately put into requisition ; and, in pursuance of judicial 
sentences, tMrteen slaves were hurnt alive at the stake in 
the city of New York, eighteen were hanged, and seventy- 
one were exported to foreign markets. Mr. Webster "is 
unnecessarily distressed by the supposed unhappy in- 
fluence of the anti-slavery agitation upon the condition 
of the slaves. They were never better treated, were never 
less miserable, than at the present moment. The more 
public observation is directed to the conduct of the mas- 
ters, the less reprehensible will that conduct be. 



8 

The promulgation of the law of " physical geography " 
seems to make no impression on the slaveholders, as they 
continue as ravenous as ever for the new territories. 
But with one accord they unite with the pro-slavery de- 
mocrats at the North, and with our Northern politicians 
and merchants eager for Southern votes and Southern 
trade, in lauding and glorifying him, not for his discovery 
of a new law of nature, but for his discovery of a na- 
tional PLEDGE, to receive into the Union tiikee slave 
States to be formed out of the Texan territory, — tor his 
denunciation of the proviso, and for his promised aid m 
catching the future Latimers who may be found on the 
soil of Massachusetts. c. ^ f 

Cono-ress by the Constitution may admit new States at 
discretion, and hence new States have been admitted on 
various conditions. The joint resolutions admitting Texas 
imposed restrictions on this power. Congress may with 
the consent of Texas, admit one State north of ob 
30' • but, if admitted, it must be as a Free State, ^on- 
o-ress wmv admit three States, with the consent ot lexas, 
south of that line ; but, if admitted, no restriction m 
reo-ard to slavery can be imposed on them. Mr. A\ ebster 
now finds in these resolutions what had escaped the know- 
ledge of both the North and the South, viz. a national 
PLEDGE to admit THREE SLAVE States. As no State 
can be admitted without the consent of Texas and as that 
consent will be withheld for a State north of 3b 30 it 
follows, according to Mr. Webster, that we hav-e made a 
one-side bargain; of the four contemplated Sta es, ^^e 
must have three with slavery, but are to be cheated out of 
the one with freedom. This discovery, which has taken 
tbe whole nation by surprise, is, like the discovery of the 
geographical law, of recent date. _ 

On the 22d March, 1848, Mr. Webster was ignoran of 
this national pledge ! In his speech in the Senate on that 
day alluding to the joint resolutions, he remarked : — 

'' If YOU refer to the resolutions providing lor the an- 
nexation of Texas, you find a proviso that it shall be m 
the POWER OP Congress hereafter to make four new 
States out of Texan territory — present and prospective 



9 

five new States ; ten new senators mat come into the 
Union out of Texas." — Houston's Reports, p. 403. 

Mr. Webster pledges himself to vote for the bill now 
pending in the Senate, for the recovery of fugitive slaves, 
by which a citizen of Massachusetts may be converted into 
a beast of burden, and by which any man or woman may 
be made to pay $1,500, and be confined six months in 
prison, for the crime of givhig food and lodging, harboring 
and concealing a fellow-being, and perhaps a fellow-Chris- 
tian, guiltless of crime, and thus aiding him in the pursuit 
of life, liberty, and happiness. Possibly Mr. Webster 
may hereafter discover a law of human nature that will 
render this pledge as worthless as his geographical law 
has rendered his proviso pledge. Let us inquire into the 
practical working of this proposed law. As Mr. Webster 
is to vote for it, he, of course, can have no conscientious 
objection to aid in executing it. Let us, then, imagine a 
scene in perfect consistency with the position he has as- 
sumed. 

On his return from Washington, he is followed by 
Messrs. Bruin and Hill, who retain him in a prosecution 
they have commenced against a Boston matron. She had 
harbored their beautiful slave, for whom they had lately 
demanded eighteen hundred dollars, and who had effected 
her escape from bondage and outrage. The cause is 
ready for trial, not before a postmaster or other solitary 
official, but, as in this case it 7nust be, before a Boston 
Jury. The Court is opened, and the jury empanelled ; 
but the room is thronged to suffocation, and an anxious 
multitude without is striving for admittance. A cry is 
heard, " To Faneuii. Hall ! " The Court yields to the 
wishes of tlie people. The lady, guarded by constables, 
and Daniel Webster, locked arm in arm with his 
Alexandria clients, wend their way to the Hall. The 
judges and jury have taken their seats ; the old Cradle 
of Liberty is filled to its utmost capacity with citizens of 
Boston ; the silence of the grave pervades the vast as- 
sembly : but men's hearts are beating with unwonted 
violence, and scorn and indignation are distorting the 
lineaments of every countenance. Daniel Webster 



10 

rises as counsel for the prosecution ; and Hancock and 
Warren, and the Adamses, and other apostles and martyrs 
of New England liberty, seem to look down upon him 
from their canvas with unnatural sternness. The feed 
advocate of the slave-traders turns to the jury with some 
little embarrassment of manner, — some tremor of muscle. 
He commences his address with a learned exposition of 
the Constitution. Next follows a soul-stirring eulogium 
upon our globiotjs Ukion, — the last hope of freedom, 
the refuge for the oppressed of all the nations upon earth. 
Most earnestly does he protest, that no man ^ abominates 
slavery more "than he does ; and, to prove his sincerity, 
he quotes from his old speeches, and repeats his old 
pledges. But he has a sacred duty to perform, and fear- 
lessly will he discharge it. The cause of human freedom 
and of human rights, and the preservation of our glorious 
Union, — upon which that freedom and those rights 
depend, — require, imperatively require, that this lady, 
virtuous and benevolent as she may be, shall be torn from 
her husband and children, and immured with felons in 
Leveret-street jail for six months. He intimates, that 
this is only a portion of the punishment due to the crime 
of the prisoner. His injured clients are entitled to one 
thousand dollars from the husband of the lady ; and the 
insulted majesty of the Union claims from the same 
source, satisfi\ction to the amount of five hundred dollars. 
After a high-wrought peroration on the obligations of 
justice and good faith, he calls a witness to prove the 
guilt of the prisoner. At this point he is interrupted by 
the opposite counsel, who informs the jury he will not 
detain them by the examination of witnesses. The pri- 
soner freely, cheerfully, admits the act with which she is 
charged. It is true that she saw in the panting fugitive 
at her door a representative of Him who said, " Inasmuch 
as ye did it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, 
ye did it unto me." She did take her in ; she did feed 
and clothe and lodge and conceal her. If, in thus obey- 
ing the law of God, she has broken that of man, she is 
willing, if needs be, to suffer bonds in His cause who 
gave his life for her. He then maintains that the Consti- 



11 

tution imposes upon the States the obligation to sm-render 
fugitives, and gives Congress no authority to visit private 
individuals with pains and penalties, for not assisting in 
their apprehension. In proof of the correctness of this 
construction of the Constitution, he reads the opinion of 
the learned counsel for the prosecution, expressed in his 
late speech in the Senate. But he rests the defence of 
the prisoner on higher grounds than constitutional law. 
He appeals to the law of love written upon the human 
heart, and proclaimed by the voice of the Son of God ; 
and, if the Constitution of the United States abrogates 
this law, then is it a conspiracy against the virtue of man 
and the government of Jehovah, and therefore null and 
void. The cause is submitted by the Court, with a brief 
intimation to the jury, that in a criminal case they are the 
judges of the Iciiv as well as of the fact. The jury, with- 
out leaving their box, return a verdict of not guilty. 
As the words are caught by the attending multitude, their 
pent-up feelings find vent in loud and prolonged hurrahs ; 
and the once-favorite son of New England blanches as he 
hears in the triumphant shouts of the people the knell of 
his own fame and power. 

Be it that all this is fiction. Alas ! it is fiction 
founded on fact, — founded on Mr. Webster's broken 
pledges, — founded on his open apostasy from the cause 
of freedom, — founded on his procLaimed intention to vote 
for a law outraging alike the personal secHrity of the 
citizen and the obligations of the Christian. Mr. Web- 
ster treats with disrespect the Legislatures of fourteen 
States of the Free North which have protested against 
the extension of slavery to the new territories, not by 
questioning the binding force of their instructions, but by 
virtually rebuking them all for expressing " any opinion 
whatever " in relation to slaversi and by insisting that 
they " have nothing to f^'o " ' with a question occupying 
the thoughts and enlisting 'the feelings of every citizen, 
and involving the honor, power, and prosperity of our 
country, and the happiness or degradation of unborn 
millions of the human race. 

He ;\ uys a sorry compliment to the common sense of the 



12 

people in offering to them, at the eleventli liour, a new and 
unheard-of law of "physical geography," together with 
the " Asiatic scenery and formation " of the conquered 
territories, as an excuse for violating the faith he had 
plighted in behalf of the proviso. He has shocked the 
moral sense of a large portion of the community, by giv- 
ing in advance his sanction to a law which suspeiids the 
liberty or bondage of a citizen on the affidavit of a slave- 
holder, and the judgment of a postmaster, — a law which 
converts sympathy for guiltless misery into crime, and 
threatens to tenant our jails with our most estimable men 
and women. 

Mr. Webster underrates the intelligence and moral sen- 
sibilities of the masses. Relying on the Southern affinities 
of our commercial cities, on the subserviency of politi- 
cians, on the discipline of party, and on his own great 
influence, Mr. Webster looks dow7i upon the people ; but 
the time is probably not far distant when the people will 
cease to look up to him. Parties will accept of any lead- 
ers who can acquire for them the spoils of the day ; but, 
in the political history of our country, the people have 
never placed their affections upon any man, in whose sta- 
bility and consistency they did not confide. 

I remain, dear sir, yours truly, 

WILLIAM JAY. 



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